


Do Over

by The_Lord_of_Chaos



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, OotP, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lord_of_Chaos/pseuds/The_Lord_of_Chaos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With two dead at the Department of Mysteries, Harry and Ron embark on a risky mission to make things right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Over

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Even if Rowling didn’t own the rights to Harry Potter, this story still wouldn’t legally be mine, since the contract I have with my employer says they own anything creative I make while I work there.  
> AN: I leave tomorrow for Basic Combat Training. I will be gone for some time, but eventually, some time next year, I hope to start putting out more one shots.

Do Over

"You bloody bastard," Ron said as he stormed into Gryffindor tower, not bothering to put down his travel bag.

Harry jumped up off of his bed, where he had been holed up all day.

"Ron, I'm sorry," Harry started.

"Sorry? You're sorry? How could you, how could you not be there?" he demanded.

That really wasn’t what he was apologizing for.

"I just couldn't..."

Ron interrupted him. "Four and a half bloody years being best friends, and you just couldn't bloody well be there for her, not when she's always been there for you."

"Well that's the problem isn't it? If she hadn't..." Harry started before Ron cut him off.

"Oh don't you dare! It wasn't her fault."

"I know it wasn't her fault, it was mine!"

"Don't be stupid, you prick. Now where the hell were you?"

Harry felt as if this should have been obvious. "I couldn't be there."

"I needed you there," Ron yelled at him, grabbing him by the collar. "Anybody else but you, I would have been fine, but you're my best friend, and you weren't there when I needed you. What do you mean you couldn't be there? Were you to busy missing Sirius to bother missing Hermione?"

"Don't you fucking... " Harry angrily nocked Ron's hands away "You don't invite the killer to the funeral, Hermione's parents didn't want to see the boy who got their daughter killed at her funeral. How the hell could you have actually expected me to go?"

"Don't say that. Dololhov killed her, just like he killed my uncles and who knows how many others. He killed her, not you, so get your fucking head out of your arse," Ron said harshly.

"No. She told me it was probably a trap, but I wouldn't listen. I dragged you all there, and now she's dead, and Sirius is dead, and it's all because I wouldn't listen."

"How could you have listened? Do you think I would have listened if I thought it was my dad stuck with You-Know-Who in the Department of Mysteries? Do you think Hermione would have? After everything? Damn it Harry, my dad’s alive because of those fucking visions. You couldn’t have just ignored them."

Could he have? Harry tried to imagine that night, tried to imagine going about the rest of his day pretending that he hadn’t seen Sirius being tortured.

“I was right there Ron, I was right next to her, and he... I couldn’t save her. And I thought she would be alright; she was still breathing afterwards. Then I went chasing after Belatrix, while she was dying, and...” Harry shook his head. "I just can't believe they're gone.” He sank down onto his bed. “I keep waiting for Hermione to walk through that door and tell us we're late for the leaving feast."

"I know," Ron said miserably. "If only we hadn’t gotten separated. After everything we've gone through, there's a part of me that thinks I should have been able to save her, that I still can. Hell the two of you went back in time to save Sirius. It feels like it shouldn't be too late to save her, but it is."

Harry stilled, "What if it isn't?" he said.

"Harry.."

"Ron, those time turners, all those time turners just sitting there in the Department of Mysteries."

"But they broke Harry, they all broke. You saw them."

"Yeah, but they were in that loop, remember? They kept breaking and unbreaking over and over again. I bet they've already fixed them," Harry said, getting excited.

"But it's been four days Harry. They only go back a few hours."

"So? There's a bunch of them, we just need to use them one after another."

"Do you think that'll work?"

Harry tried to remember everything Hermione had ever told him about the time turner she had used. Apparently, once used, a time turner couldn’t be used again, until it passed the point where it had originally been used. But if they went back in time, could they just swap out the used one for the one in the past? Harry didn’t know. If that wasn’t the case, then they would have to use each time turner only once, and hope that all of them together could get them back far enough.

"Only one way to find out."

"Do you think we can get into the Department of Mysteries in broad daylight with your invisibility cloak?"

"Same answer," Harry said.

Ron gave him the first smile he had probably worn in the past four days.

"We should go now then, we don't know how far back they'll all take us, we shouldn't waste any time."

IIIIIII

Getting to the Ministry had been as easy as going through the tunnel to Honeyduke's and summoning the Knight Bus. Even getting in had been simple, though he had been nervous going through the security checkpoint. Simply telling the guard that they were there to answer questions about the break in, and that they knew the way, had been enough to get them through. Now though, as they stood in the empty corridor outside the Department of Mysteries, invisibility cloak now covering the both of them, they had come across their first real obstacle. Doors weren't supposed to open by themselves, and no one had come through the door in the past few minutes. They needed to slip through as the door closed behind someone else.

"Here wait a moment," Ron said, riffling through his pockets.

"Shh," Harry said.

Ron pulled out his wand and muttered "Quietus," before continuing his search.

"Here it is," he said pulling out an extendable ear. "We can listen and see if anyone's on the other side."

Harry nodded, and the two of them shuffled towards the door. As Ron crouched down to slide one end of the extendable ear under the door, Harry was careful to hold the cloak over the both of them. It had been a while since they had both been able to fit under the cloak without feeling like any moment a foot would show under the fabric.

"Can you hear anything?" Harry asked.

"No I think it's..."

It was a good thing that Ron had silenced everything, for they would have surely been heard when Ron let out a gasp as the door he was crouched right next to opened and a wizard strode out, walking right past them.

Seizing the opportunity, Harry pulled Ron along with him, through the soon to be shut door. Crouching down, Harry made sure that they were covered, and looked about the round room as all of the doors began to spin. None of their markings from the last time they had been there remained. Luckily the room was empty.

"I suppose they've got charms up against eavesdropping on the doors," Ron said.

"Probably," Harry said.

"Do we wait again, or should we just try a door?"

Harry thought about the time. There was no telling how far back in time they would be able to go.

"We should just pick a door, even if someone notices, we're invisible and silent."

"Right," Ron said. "Any door then?"

Harry thought about it. He remembered that night, when he had chased after Belatrix, through the circular room, he had asked out loud which door the exit was, and the right door had opened for him. But what should he ask for?

“Time,” he called out, before realizing that no sound could escape the cloak. He lifted the cloak over his head, and called out “Time,” again.

A door opened to his right, but not because of anything he had done.

“Hey,” said the wizard who had just walked through. Harry let the cloak fall back over himself. “Stop. Show yourself.”

Harry hurriedly walked over to the door in front of him, Ron shuffling behind, and opened it just wide enough for the two of them to slip through, and quietly but quickly closed the door, hoping that the circular room would start spinning and the man would lose them. Once inside though, he wished that he had picked a different door. The arch and veil stood opposite them, and Harry felt his insides grow cold. Shaking his head, he reminded himself that he was going to save Sirius, no matter what. The room was empty though, and Harry made his way around towards the only other doorway. All of the offices had seemed to be interconnected, they would just have to make their way until they got to the time division.

An alarm started blaring.

“I think it’s time to run,” Ron said.

Harry nodded, and they started moving forward. In the brain room, there were two Unspeakables who looked like they had been working on the giant tank, which was once more filled with brains. Now though they were looking about, wands drawn, and on their guard. They moved past the two, still invisible, and now there were two doors. One Harry remembered lead back to the circular room, the other one lead their way forward. Harry opened the door, dragging Ron quickly behind himself. He heard the two Unspeakables turn towards the door, one of them was shouting. He closed the door as silently as he could and cast Coloportus. They were in a room filled with chalkboards, with weird runes and arithmancy equations all over the place. Their entry hadn’t gone unnoticed though, and Ron had to drag Harry down to avoid a spell that just went over his head. Crouched down, the two of them scrambled across the room, while an unspeakable started casting an odd spell that seemed to shoot large spider silk all over the room. Their path to the other side quickly became encumbered and Harry wished that he had brought his broom. The door they had come in through finally opened, and the two wizards from the brain room came in.

It was difficult, trying to step over the spider silk that now covered the room at every angle, especially while trying to keep the cloak on.

“Ron, forget the cloak for now, we’ll just make a run for it.”

He got a nod from Ron. Harry pulled out one of the twin’s products, and slid it across the floor, where it exploded in a brilliant display. Pulling off the cloak, the two made a dash for the other side, using the second the other three wizards were distracted. They jumped and ducked over the sticky strands, and before they reached the other side, they were ducking spells as well. Harry ripped the door open, and was propelled through the other side by Ron, who had been hit by a spell from behind. Slamming the door shut, Harry locked the door, and then cast Engorgio on it, jamming it into the frame. Harry looked at Ron, who was stiff as a board.

“Finite,” he said, and Ron sprang back up. They were in a room filled with various crystals of every shape, size, and color. The room was also empty. They replaced the cloak, and Ron once more cast Quietus to keep them silent. There were two doors and one of them lead off into a curved hallway that looked familiar, so Harry started down it with Ron right next to him. They passed one door that was made of steel, and looked securely locked, and Harry wondered if it was the room that Dumbledore had spoken of.

Keeping on, they found their way blocked by two Unspeakables who seemed to be standing guard in the hallway, both watching the others back, their wands up, ready for attack.

“I think we’ll have to stun them, there’s no way we can get past them without detection,” Harry said. “You get left, I’ll get right.”

“Here,” Ron said. He pulled out a small ball, the size of a marble, crouched down, and banished it. It flew between the feet of one of the Unspeakables, and impacted the wall behind him. There was a small bang and a puff of smoke. Both of them turned to the noise, and Ron and Harry both cast stunners, but Harry had to duck as his stunner was sent back at him off the shield that the woman had cast. The other man was down though, and Ron grabbed Harry’s arm and the two of them jumped over the fallen man and on down the hallway. It was lucky the hallway was curved, because the Unspeakable was in hot pursuit, and casting various spells at their backs. 

They kept close to the inside of the curve so that the wall could give them partial cover. Ron latched onto the next door they came across and they ran through, right into the prophesy room. Ron locked the door behind them, but a moment later it exploded in a shower of splinters. The time room was just in the next room over. They made a mad run for it. The witch behind them shouting out.

“Intruders, they’re coming this way, they’re invisible.”

They sprinted into the time room, which was unfortunately heavily populated, the unspeakable behind them still shouting out warnings, and casting spells.

Racing forward, their feet surely showing as the cloak fluttered about their running forms, they vaulted towards the cabinet with the time turners. To Harry's dismay though, they had not been fixed, they were still caught in their loop. Why had they not been fixed? Harry's eye caught one as he ran forward, it looked just like the one he and Hermione had used in their third year. As he approached, he watched as it crashed to the floor, shattered, and then reformed, flying back up.

A spell zoomed over his head, as they reached the time turners. Harry lifted the cloak in front of him, hoping that his back was still hidden, and snatched the time turner out of the air as it once more began its fall. Letting the cloak slide back over him, he looped the chain around his and Ron's neck, as Ron dragged him away from the cabinet. Harry saw the three Unspeakables come upon them as he spun the hourglass inside the brass ring as fast as he could, trying to maximize how far back they would go. As he felt himself lurch however, he also felt a spell impact his trainer, the only part of him peeking out from under the cloak.

Harry cried out, as an intense pain started in his heel, and started working its way up his leg.

"What happened? Where'd you get hit?"

"My foot, my leg."

The both of them, now crouched down on the floor, completely hidden by the cloak looked around. They had definitely traveled through time. Besides themselves, the office was now empty, and it looked like it might be night time.

Ron dragged up the hem of Harry's pants on the leg Harry clutched.

"Bloody Hell," he gasped.

Harry looked down and stifled a yell. His ankle was blue, and frozen to the touch. Whatever spell it was though, it was spreading, creeping up his calf.

"Finite incantatum," Ron tried, to no avail.

"Dorma Arcana," Harry said through gritted teeth. Nothing happened. It felt as though his leg was slowly being lowered into a vat of liquid nitrogen.

"Tempra Ectoterra," Ron said. Harry couldn't even feel the wand strike his leg. It was already past his knee.

Harry started to panic as the cold started creeping towards his hip, he really didn’t want to think about what would happen if it got much farther. A wild thought of amputation flitted across his mind, but he dashed it out.

“Incendium Corpus,” Harry cried out as he started to feel the icy sensation creep past his hip. He already had another incantation on his lips when he realized that the spell had stopped, and his leg was starting to return to normal. He fell backwards, panting for breath, almost crying in relief.

“You alright?” Ron asked, still out of breath himself.

“I think I will be,” Harry said.

“Unspeakables don’t mess around, I guess.”

Harry shook his head. They sure didn’t.

“How far back did we go? It must be night, no one’s here.” Ron asked

“It’s six o’ clock,” Harry said, looking at one of the many clocks that littered the time devision. That’s five hours.

“Do you think you can stand?” Ron asked.

“Let’s see.”

Ron stood up, and helped Harry get up. His leg was very stiff, but he was able to take a step on it.

“So will this mean that there’ll be two of each of us now?” Ron asked. “I mean, if we save Hermione, there won’t be any reason for us to go back in time. Unless we tell them to go back.”

“But then there would be three of us. Us, the originals, and the ones we send back, those would be a different version of us,” Harry said. He rather didn’t like thinking about time travel.

“The twins seem to like there being two of them, maybe we will to,” Ron said.

“We’ll see,” Harry said. “Ok, I think I’m ready to go on.”

They walked over to the perpetually falling time turners. Harry spotted the one he had used, and plucked it from the air, letting it’s used counterpart fall in its pace. He looped it around his and Ron’s necks and spun. Nothing happened.

“What’s wrong,” Ron asked.

“Nothing,” Harry said. “We just can’t use the same one twice.”

He let the one they had just used fall from where it might have once sat on the cabinet and then let his hand dart out to pick out another one from its fall. Situating themselves perfectly under the cloak once more, with the loop around both their necks, Harry spun the time turner, once more going for the maximum trip. He felt himself lurch.

Looking at the clock, he was dismayed to see that they had traveled less than three hours. He looked at the time turners, frowning. How many more would take them back so little. Letting the slower time turner fall with the others, Harry’s hand once more picked out a time turner, and he and Ron lurched once more. Though this time the lurching did not seem to stop all at once. It took him a moment to realize that that was just him.

“You alright?” Ron asked.

“Just a bit off,” Harry said. “That curse took a lot out of me.”

“Five hours,” Ron said. “We’ll have company next time.”

They did, four and a half hours backwards, and the the office was once more occupied. Harry looked around, wondering which one of the Unspeakables had hit him with that nasty curse. It took him a moment though, to realize that he had a headache.

Lifting the cloak in front of himself, while keeping their backs covered from everyone behind them, Harry reached out, dropped the used time turner, and grabbed another. Repositioning the cloak, they traveled back seven hours.

“Ugh,” Ron said. “My head’s starting to kill me.”

“Mine to,” Harry said.

"Do you think it's a side affect of the time turners?"

"I don't know," Harry said, wondering if it would get worse. Even if it did though, there was no turning back.

A few more trips, and it wasn't just the headache, his bones creaked as he moved, and he felt exhausted. His hand darted out once more to grab a time turner, and he missed. He grabbed again.

Looping it around their necks, Harry wondered how much further they could go. They weren't even half way there.

Seven hours this time. Ron was holding a hand to his head with his eyes closed.

"You alright?" Harry asked.

"Just give me a minute," Ron said. He looked up at Harry and his frown grew. "Your nose is bleeding."

Harry's hand flew up to his face, coming away red. He hadn't even noticed.

"If this keeps getting worse, will we even be able to do anything when we get there?" Ron asked miserably.

"We can warn someone, if we go back far enough,” said Harry, “before the Death Eaters even get there. Though I'm starting to wonder if we're going to have to worry about there being two of us." He felt as if there was something horribly wrong with him. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, could feel it skipping the occasional beat. He had trouble focusing his vision.

Harry swapped time turners.

Two more trips, and they found themselves taking a rest with their backs up against the wall, carefully hidden beneath the cloak, lest anyone see them in the office. The Unspeakables in the office completely oblivious to the two young wizards. Harry's whole body was shivering slightly.

"I guess this is why no one ever tried to go back and kill You-Know-Who when he was a kid," Ron said shakily.

"I wish we could go back further," Harry said. "Go back and stop Cedric from dying too, or Wormtail from escaping, or all of it really."

"I wish I could go back and take back every mean thing I ever said to Hermione," Ron said. "I really do. When we save her, I promise, I'll never argue with her again."  
Harry smiled, he rather didn't think that that was possible.

"Come on," he said. "I'm not getting any better."

It took him four tries to grab one of the falling time turners. Looping it around their necks, he really wished he could go back to when it all began. He started spinning.  
This time though, he didn't feel a shift. He felt as if something inside of himself was being torn. With a great jolt, all of his aches and pains went away, he no longer felt tired, he couldn't see a thing. In a moment of panic he thought that he had died. He felt insubstantial, like he was floating in the air, but there was no up or down, or air for that matter. He felt as though he had no body. In spite of the lack of revealing sensation, he did have the feeling as though he was traveling. Then all of a sudden, he felt as though he had slammed into something, though it didn't hurt at all.

His eyes were closed. He had eyes, he was relieved to feel, and hands too.

"Bloody hell!" a familiar, but different, voice said.

He opened his eyes, and was met with something he had rather not been expecting.

"You're tiny!" a very small Ron said.

No, not just small, young. Ron looked like he had the first time they had met on the Hogwarts Express. In fact, that was where they were.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. "I'm... I mean you're.... Bloody Hell!"

"This is real right?" Harry said.

Ron reached over and pinched his arm.

"Ow, alright, probably real."

"We're eleven again," Ron said, a big goofy grin on his face.

"Yeah," Harry said. He probably had a similar smile of his own.

Ron stood up in the small compartment and started inspecting himself. "I was rather happy not being titchy."

"But this is it, Ron. We got what we wanted. We can change it all," he said excitedly.

They could change everything. No one had to die, no one would. Harry would make sure of it. There were so many possibilities for changing the future for the better.

There was a nock on the compartment door, and the old witch with the food trolly opened the door. Harry grinned at Ron, and once more, for the first time, Harry indulged himself in a host of sweets and various sugary wizarding beverages.

He sat back down, giddy at the feeling of reliving his time on the Hogwarts Express. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't felt giddy in quite a long while. In fact he didn't feel much like himself at all. He felt like an eleven year old boy once more. It was very weird, but he could remember the night before going to Kings Cross just as clearly as he could remember the miserable nights after Hermione had died.

"Ron," Harry said. "Do you feel sixteen or eleven?"

Ron frowned. "I guess I feel eleven, it's weird, only not, at the same time."

Harry nodded, thinking about it more though, he was starting to feel less and less like he was fifteen, and more like he was eleven, the memories that had been clear just moments ago felt like they were more distant.

"My memories feel like they're fading," he said, a note of panic in his voice.

"What?" Ron said. He closed his eyes before shaking his head. "Me to. Do you think we're loosing them?"

"I don't know," Harry said.

"We can't change anything if we don't remember."

Harry threw open his trunk, reaching for some parchment. Grabbing some, and a quill, he saw his wand lying on top of his supplies. He would have to make sure he always had it on him in the future. Grabbing that too, he started writing.

'Memories from future.'

'Vision from Voldemort is fake, don't go to Department of Mysteries, Nagini does bite Mr. Weasley.'

'Triwizard cup is Portkey, and Professor Moody is an impostor.'

'Chamber of Secrets opened with Tom Riddles Diary, it possesses Ginny Weasley.'

'Voldemort needs bones of his father.'

The door opened and an eleven year old Neville Longbottom walked in, asking if they had seen his toad, Trevor. Harry hid the parchment quickly.

"Accio Trevor," Ron said after drawing his wand. Harry's eyes widened; that was a fourth year spell. They'd have to talk about that one once Neville left. A moment later, Trevor the toad zoomed into the compartment, and Harry caught him deftly before handing him to Neville.

"Wow, thanks," Neville said.

"Hey," Harry said. "I look forward to getting to know you later, but can you give Ron and me a moment please?"

"Oh, sure," Neville said, looking sort of downtrodden. Harry felt guilty, but he and Ron had to decide right then and there what, if anything, they would reveal to everyone else.

Once the door was closed, Harry turned a wry look on Ron.

"Probably shouldn't have done that, huh?"

"Nope," said Harry.

"We'll tell Dumbledore though, right? I mean he can help."

In his grief, Harry hadn't thought much about Dumbledore or the fact that he had kept the prophesy from him. Now though...

"Not yet," he said. "Eventually. Let's see where we stand before we tell him anything."

"What about Hermione?"

Harry frowned. Hermione wasn't the Hermione who had died in the Department of Mysteries. She wasn't their friend yet.

"We can't, I mean not yet."

"We became friends after the troll thing, but we can't let that happen again," Ron said morosely, as if they didn’t stand much chance of becoming Hermione’s friends without first saving her from the troll. Though the whole time they had been friends, there had always been some sort of adventure, or mystery, or struggle. How would things go without any of that.

"We can try just being nice this go around."

'Be friends with Hermione Granger,' he wrote.

"I don't think I've lost any memories," Ron said

"I know, I don't think I have either, but I just want to be sure, I mean..."

The door opened once more, and a very welcome sight met their eyes.

"Excuse me, have either of you seen a toad. A boy named Neville's lost his."

Harry found for a moment that he couldn't say anything.

"Uh..." Ron seemed to be having the same problem.

"We found it actually, gave it back to him just a moment ago," Harry said finally.

"Oh, well that's good then." She turned to leave, looking slightly disappointed to not have been the one to find Trevor the toad.

"Wait," Ron said.

Hermione turned back.

"If you don't already have a compartment, would you like to join us," Harry said.

"Oh, well..." Hermione looked surprised at the offer. "Yes, I'd love to join you," she said, taking a seat next to Ron. "My name is Hermione, what are your names."

"Ron," Ron said enthusiastically. "And this is Harry."

"Are you first years?" she asked.

"Yeah," Harry said. "You to?" It was surreal, to remember the first time they met, and to experience it all so differently anew.

"Oh yes, and it's ever so exciting. I must say up until I went to Diagon Alley to pick up my school supplies, I didn't quite believe it was all real. Even after Professor McGonagall came and turned our couch into a chinchilla I thought I was just going to wake up to find it was all a dream."

"Me too," Harry said. "Hagrid the grounds keeper came to tell me about it. I thought he had to be mistaken. Not the magic bit, that was alright, but I thought surely he had to be wrong about me being a wizard."

"What about you?" Hermione asked turning to Ron. "When did you learn you were a wizard?"

"Oh my whole life really, though it wasn't official until I did my first bit of accidental magic when I was four. I got one of my brothers with a babbling hex of sorts. We had family over to celebrate."

"Wasn't official?" Hermione asked

"Well I could have been a squib? Can't tell till you first do magic."

Harry didn't think he had ever smiled so much in his whole life, looking at Ron, he thought Ron's face might split, he had such a grin. Having Hermione there was amazing, what they had done was amazing.

"Oh, is this your pet rat?" Hermione asked.

The smiles faltered, and Harry's eyes flew to Scabbers, no, Wormtail, who looked to be fast asleep on the seat next to Ron. His and Ron's eyes locked and Harry subtly shook his head.

"Yes," Harry forced himself to say with a smile. "That's Scabbers, Ron's pet rat. And this is Hedgwig, my owl. Do you have a pet?" he asked.

While Hermione went on a bit of a longwinded tale about a parrot her mother owned, and all the interesting facts she could list about parrots, Harry wondered how he could have forgotten about Pettigrew, who had been sitting there the entire time. He supposed that his fifteen year old self had thought that the man was off with Voldemort, while his eleven year old self neither new about the man, nor thought Scabbers was anything but Ron's pet rat.

Had he heard anything, he looked fast asleep, but could he be pretending? Not that he needed to. But if the man had heard anything, if he knew they were from the future, could he suspect they might know about his duplicity. It seemed very unlikely but Wormtail was the key to freeing Sirius, and Harry wasn't taking any chances. A plan formed in his head, and he thought he knew how to include Hermione in an adventure.

"Hey, Hermione. Ron and I were just going to look through our charms book before you came in. Ron wanted to try a hovering charm. Do you want to try that?" he asked.

"Oh yes, let's do that." Hermione said enthusiastically.

Harry pulled out his charms book and opened it before handing it to Ron. "Here, I read up on it before. You two can share." From the surreptitious looks Ron was giving Scabbers, Harry suspected that he wanted to use the book to smash his pet rat.

"Oh, I've read up on it too already, of course. Here, let me help you," Hermione said authoritatively.

While Hermione was pointing out wand movement diagrams from the book, Harry sneakily pulled his wand out and held it at his side. Moving across the compartment, he casually picked up Scabbers and moved him to the side, so that he could sit between the rat and Ron, pretending like he was reading over Ron's shoulder. His left hand crossed over his body, he held Scabbers next to him, while his other hand came up to jab his wand right underneath the now squirming rat.

“Stupefy,” he said under his breath, but with meaning. Scabbers went still, and luckily the flash of his wand was hidden underneath. Harry waited for Hermione to finish reviewing the spell.

“Right,” he said. “Who wants to try first?”

“Oh, I’ll try,” said Hermione, pulling out her wand.

Harry crossed to the other side of the compartment, leaving Scabbers behind in an awkward sitting position, and picked up the quill he had been using earlier.

“Here, try with this,” he said, once more seated opposite Hermione and Ron.

While Hermione focused on the task she was about to perform, Harry made eye contact with Ron and gestured to one of the unopened bottles of sugary drink sitting next to him. Hermione looked determinedly at the quill, before saying the incantation, with a swish and flick of her wand. “Wingardium Leviosa.”

Harry was unsurprised to see the feather quill float up, and up to the top of the compartment. Hermione looked up at it in wonder. He made eye contact with Ron again and winked.

Rapidly, and again, under his breath, Harry performed the homorphous charm on Scabbers, and then a summoning charm.  
He yelled out as Peter Pettigrew flew towards him. He deftly caught the man’s wrists, his wand hand sliding up, to grasp the man’s hand, making it look like they were struggling for his wand. Yelling and thrashing about, it would look to Hermione like Harry was fighting off an assailant.

“Help me,” he cried out. “He’s trying to kill me. Knock him out with something.” He let some sparks fly out of his wand for effect. Supporting Pettigrews dead weight became more difficult when Ron landed on the man’s back and started pounding on him. Though, he must not have gotten Harry’s subtle message, because he was using his fists instead of one of the bottles.

“Get off him,” his friend cried out.

“Pelere Pulsus,” Hermione cried out.

Pettigrew was thrust sideways, impacting with the side of the compartment, while Ron toppled on top of Harry. Harry and Ron untangled themselves from one another and stood up. Harry looked at the limp form of Peter Pettigrew.

“I think you knocked him out,” Harry told Hermione with a relieved grin. “Thanks, I think you saved my life.”

“But why would anyone try to kill you?” Hermione asked.

“Well Voldemort tried when I was a baby.”

“Oh! You’re Harry Potter, I read about you.”

“Read more than that, I think,” Ron said. “I don’t think that spell was in any of our books.”

“Oh, I got a few extras for some light reading. But shouldn’t we be doing something about this man?”

“Right,” Ron said. He stuck his head out the compartment door.

“Oy, someone just tried to kill the Boy-Who-Lived.”

Harry could hear yelling running down the hall as the news spread, and before they knew it, there was a crowd outside, and a couple of prefects pushing their way through.

Harry acted shocked at what had happened, and Ron loudly proclaimed how he had tackled the man, while Hermione tried to calmly explain everything that had happened. Then, after the train had stopped, and the Aurors came, took statements and took away their prisoner; Harry sat down with Hermione and Ron, alone again in the compartment.

“I must say, I hope nothing like this happens at Hogwarts,” Hermione said.

“Don’t worry, Hogwarts is the safest place in the world,” Ron said.

“You were brilliant,” Harry said to Hermione. “You both were. I bet you both get sorted into Gryffindor.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I mean I suppose that that would be nice, but I think I’ll probably end up in Ravenclaw. I read all about the houses of course, in Hogwarts, a History.”

Ron grinned at the mention of Hermione’s frequently referenced book.

As Hermione went on about the many things she had read about the school they were once again approaching, Harry sat back and felt for the first time in a long time, or perhaps the first time ever, that everything was going to be alright. Hermione, Sirius, and Cedric Diggory were all alive again; they knew what to look out for; and they had a chance to do a part of their childhood over again. How much better would things be now that he could go live with Sirius over the summer, or avoid becoming a pariah in his second year. He wouldn’t just stop Voldemort’s resurrection in his fourth year, he could make sure that it would never happen. He wondered what Hogwarts would be like, without some threat every year.

As the train made the final approach to Hogwarts, Harry started writing down more things from the future. By the time the train pulled in, he had moved on from important things like:

‘Bartemius Crouch Jr. is alive and living under the Imperius Curse under an invisibility cloak at his father’s house.’

And,

‘Lucious Malfoy has secret compartment under drawing room floor, where Tom Riddle’s Diary is probably hidden.’

To bits of advice he wished he’d had the first time around:

‘If you have to ask a girl to a dance, just do it as soon as you can.’

He wondered if advice like:

‘On the first day of potions, just look strait at the professor when he does his opening monologue.’

Would do any good. It was doubtable there was anything he could do to make potions bearable.

The memories of his older self no longer felt like they were fading, just like they had settled into the background, but it felt good to think about the myriad of things he could accomplish. He’d been given a chance to start over, and he was determined to make the best of it.

End

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Hope you like it, please review if you do. I wish I had time to flesh this out more. Although, with as much foreknowledge as they have, they could basically destroy Voldemort’s chances of resurrection, and eliminate the main conflicts from most of the series.


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